Photographing Paintings

Hello, reporing back on my 'adventures' so far in photographing art work.

I have purchaced: Eos 750D, a couple of YongNuo YN-560 III flash units, a Yongnuo RF603 Flash Trigger, colordata spyderchecker and spyder5 express monitor calibrator. Finally after two failed attempts, broken E-bay purchaces, I got a very good Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM that works.

I have used the standard setup of 2 flashes at 45 deg to the painting, shooting raw. Grey, white and black points set with spyderchecker. the larger paintings shot in sections and manually stiched together. Shearwaters Printer.jpg shows the scan i had done on a epson 11000 high resolutuion scanner in the past and sheaerwaters 750D.jpg shows the results of my efforts with the same picture. These pictures show the results at actual pixel resolution. I have also included a shot of the whole painting. Overall I am happy with the results and have had some prints made with my 750D pictures (which have sold).

However I have notice that the darks in the prints are a bit too insistent and would like to reduce their intensity a bit, they are too dark and loose the colours in the shaddows, Low water750D and Puffin750D show examples of this. Can you offer advice on how to reduce this over darkness using photoshop I have been experimenting and not been successful, I just want to soften the darks. My work flow has been to photograph in raw, correct with colordata spyderchecker on a calibrated monitor.

The 750D is a great camera, a mighty improvement on my old 350D.

 

Many Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

Without seeing the originals I have to say that you are doing an excellent job. Good work.

However I have notice that the darks in the prints are a bit too insistent and would like to reduce their intensity a bit, they are too dark and loose the colours in the shaddows....

This is a common issue with translating a self-luminous monitor image into print. A monitor can easily show a several hundred to one brightness ratio when viewed in dim light. Not so with a print, which is limited to about a 100:1 ratio on a good day.

 

Some of this brightness discrepancy is corrected by the printer driver software, but there's a limit to what can be done automatically.

 

I suggest you familiarise yourself with the 'curves' tool in PhotoShop. This, IMO, is probably the most powerful and generally under-used tool in the box. 'Levels' go some way towards it, but aren't half as controllable.

 

I would experiment with lifting the black level slightly by 'grabbing' the shadow end of the curve (a straight diagonal line by default) and lifting it slightly. The info on the curves tool shows you the output level versus the input level - I'd suggest getting it to show 0, 5 as a starting point. Meaning that level 0, pure black, in the image data will be converted to level 5, very dark grey, in the newly-edited version.

 

Basically, what you're doing is preventing pure black being shown in the final image. You may have to experiment with the degree of lift to match what looks acceptable in the final print. Maybe a grey level as high as 10 or even 12 might be needed, or lower than 5. Whatever works.

Here's an example curve from the fairly crude editor in my smartphone:

A more complex curve might give better results. I sometimes pull the tone curve up in the shadow region to lighten the dark greys while leaving the absolute black level alone.

Like this:

There's almost no tonal issue that can't be corrected by use of the curves tool. It's just a case of experimenting to find what works.

 

Good luck!

P.S.

You might also opt for a curve like this that keeps better separation in the mid-tones and highlights:

Hi Joe

I have just spent the last 3 hours in photoshop investigating or should that be messing around with this problem so you reply is very timely.

Your suggestion looks to be the way to go, I was in the right area but confirmation by someone better informed really helps. I think the difference between my photographed image (the first shown above) and the printers scan (second image) lies in the reflected light due to surface texture picked up by the printers scanner ( epson expression 11000xl) you can see this by clicking on the pictures above. This texture reflected light greys the darks in the image so there is no/very little pure black. The last 3 images are my photographs the full paintings which are are about 3 to 4 feet wide. I think they have come out well apart from the darks being too insistant, which I can now fix.

Photographing the paintings in sections required careful adjustment of the flash lighting to get even exposure over the photographed area. Any variation shows up as edges in the pale blue sky when stitching together the sections.

Thanks Joe!

Look at blacks on a a paper print with a magnifying glass and they look black. Look at blacks on a monitor with a magnifying glass and you see red, green and blue elements, not black.

I have just spent the last 3 hours in photoshop investigating or should that be messing around with this problem

'Messing around', playing, experimenting, investigating.... call it what you will, it's all good.

 

The only way to really find out what the tools in PhotoShop can do is to get hands-on and use them.

 

"Any variation shows up as edges in the pale blue sky when stitching together the sections."

 

That's more likely to be due to slight vignetting in your copy lens than to a lighting variation. If you think about it; you never see sudden edge variations in lighting unless a hard shadow is being cast. So the sectional images aren't accurately capturing the lighting, but adding a darkening effect (called vignetting) toward the edges of each tile.

 

PS can help here too, by applying a vignetting correction before tiling.

Edited June 5, 2019 by rodeo_joe|1

Hi Joe

I do apply lens corrections when processing the raw files. I also allow a generous overlap of the sections so I can check exposure in the spliced areas. It also allows me to avoid the areas of most significant vignetting, which I don't think is that strong for the 60mm macro I am using.

Would you be willing to share a photo of your setup? Your results look very good and I'm curious to see how it all went together.

Hi David

I think I took a couple of pictures of my fimal setup, I will put together a summary of what i did

I guess the first thing to say is my setup looks rather underwhelming, but having said that it is carefuly thoughtout and setup and the results are in the detail.

The photographing took place in my lounge which is spartanly furnished as I have not been in the house long. The walls are almost white and the floor pale oak, The snaps make it look more coloured. Snap 1 shows my painting stand which is cobbled together from a extendable ladder, 2 g clamps and a couple of bits of wood leaned against the wall. The wood has coloured pins marking positions of the painting as this one was shot in 2 sections. This arrangement allows paintings to be slid left and right and rotated 180 degrees once everything else is setup. Snap 1 shows the small mirror dangled on thread held flat aginst the paintings surface which is used to get the camera exactly perpendicular to the picture which is CRUCIAL for sharp images. The camera is on a cobbled togther astronomical tripod with heavy weight in a bag, I will get a better tripod eventually but this system is steady enough. Flash units are mounted on cheap stands which do the job. The position of everything was adjusted until results were ok and the positions were marked on the floor with small white tape triangles and measurements taken as shown in diagram, the tape is still there.

Equipment used :

Eos 750D 24Mpix, Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM.

2 YongNuo YN-560 III flash units, a Yongnuo RF603 Flash Trigger.

colordata spyderchecker and spyder5 express monitor calibrator.

Settings:

Raw Large + jpeg, F11, ISO 100, WB flash but irrelevant as shooting raw, Flash zoom 50mm, Flash power 1/4. Flash angled down to match tilt of picture. Curtians closed so room dark, Mirror lockup was used with a 2 second delay till shooting. Focusing was done in auto then switched to manual once satisfied.

Basically all the above was setup then the sections were shot moving the painting on the stand between shots.